Search and Rescue and disembarkation activities of EU Member States are not covered by a common EU legal framework and while border control had been increasingly Europeanized throughout the past decade, this was not the case for Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. In examining the development of the EU’s SAR policy between 2010 and 2020, this article outlines how the EU’s understanding and public presentation of SAR shifted from a necessity that saves lives to a pull factor that increases deaths; translating to an ever more restrictive SAR regime and earning the Mediterranean Sea the title of the “the deadliest migration route in the world”.